Gates: Curtain call for crystal ball — LAS VEGAS—Bill Gates may be stepping away from full-time work later this year, but he still has a few things he wants to show off. — In his annual Consumer Electronics Show address, the Microsoft chairman demonstrated a slew of fashionable PCs …

The Truth That Dare Not Speak: The CES Keynote Sucked — Another year and another keynote speech at CES tops the headlines on Techmeme. The team over a CrunchGear did a good job under the circumstances live blogging Bill Gates and others from Microsoft as they spoke on stage …

Long line for Gates — Lining up for the Bill Gates keynote. — Each year I write about the insane lines and crowds at CES. The only place I don't have to wait is the women's bathroom because the female to male ratio is about 1 to 100. — With Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates set …

Wikia Search Is A Complete Letdown. — Many of us have waited a year as the Jimmy Wales hype machine promised a human powered search engine that could take on Google. Tonight that search engine launched at alpha.search.wikia.com, and it may be one of the biggest disappointments I've had the displeasure of reviewing.

Wiki Citizens Taking on a New Area: Searching — SAN FRANCISCO — When Jimmy Wales co-founded Wikipedia in 2001 and called the site, which carried only a few articles then, a free encyclopedia, not many people took him seriously. — Nowadays, with more than two million articles in English alone …

Investors Said to Seek a Takeover of CNet — CNet Networks, one of the original online media companies, would typically write about all the gossip and speculation at the Consumer Electronics Show this week in Las Vegas. Now, however, the company is likely to be the one talked about.

Google's Lunchtime Betting Game — IT probably doesn't come as a huge surprise to learn that while employees in many companies sit in the cafeteria gossiping about work, or the boss, or the competition, at Google they are doing something else. — At Google, employees are encouraged …

Yahoo Makes a New Play for Ads on Mobile Phones — SAN FRANCISCO — There may not be a Yahoo phone in the works, but the struggling Internet company is betting that a new mobile-phone strategy will help it better compete with the likes of Google, Microsoft and others for a share of the growing cellphone advertising business.

Breaking the Social Contract: My Data is not Your Data — This is likely my last post in Robert Scoble vs. Facebook saga but I think there are some subtle points being lost because of the typical blog feeding frenzy where people either choose to flame Facebook, Scoble or both.

Liberty to Bulk Up Internet Portfolio — Liberty Media Corp., in the latest move to beef up its portfolio of Internet businesses, is expected to announce today that it has bought a controlling stake in sports-nutrition retailer and fitness Web-site operator Bodybuilding.com LLC.